Recent UW grad buys $8M Eastside estate. Thanks, Dad

How's this for a college graduation present? A Chinese national is helping his child — a recent graduate from the University of Washington — buy a more than $8 million house on Seattle's Eastside.

This is according to Dean Jones, whose company, Realogics Sotheby's International Realty, is opening an Asia Desk at its showroom in Kirkland. Mandarin-speaking sales agents will staff the desk.

It's impossible to say how many Chinese nationals are buying homes in the Seattle area. "The demand is significant, but the solution is specialized," said Jones, who returned to Seattle Monday from China, where he attended the Beijing Luxury Property Show.

In addition, Beijing Sotheby's International named Jones its director of network development for the United States. He will work with Beijing-based employees to "cultivate referral networks" throughout the U.S, according to a press release from the company.

Realtors are focusing more attention on China, where there are 643,000 millionaires, with that number growing 14 percent a year, according to Juwai.com, a Chinese international real estate website. Last month, Luxury Portfolio International of Chicago agreed to market its listings to Chinese buyers via Juwai.com.

Interest among Chinese buyers in Seattle-area real estate is strong due to political and cultural ties. In China, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, the first Chinese-American governor in the United States, is akin to a rock star. He recently returned to Seattle after serving as ambassador to China.

Then there's the Chinese movie "Beijing Meets Seattle." Also called "Finding Mr. Right," it's about a pregnant Chinese woman who travels to Seattle to have the baby. The flick is one of the highest-grossing Chinese films ever.

Chinese nationals have been buying property in North America for decades, though Seattle was overlooked in favor of Vancouver, British Columbia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. Recently, however, demand has come to emerging markets like Seattle, where housing is less expensive than these other cities. "That does not go unnoticed," Jones said.

Further boosting Washington is the state's lack of an income tax. California, by contrast, has the highest personal income tax rate in the country —13.3 percent for incomes of more than $1 million.

Canada is pitching in for Seattle, too. Jones said the government there canceled its foreign direct investor program where prospective immigrants could secure residency in Canada in exchange for interest-free loans to the government. This resulted in the government returning more than 60,000 applications, mostly from Chinese nationals, compelling them to seek out alternatives for immigration.

With the Asia Desk at its Kirkland office, Realogics Sotheby's International Realty is "building a bridge to mainland China," Jones said. Agents will help clients navigate the real estate market, immigration policies and the education system. Some Chinese nationals are so eager to enroll their children in U.S. colleges that they start the process when their kids are just toddlers, Jones said.

Realogics' highest priced pending transaction is for more than $8 million for a house on the Eastside, an area that's popular among Chinese nationals, said Jones. He declined to give a precise location for the property, but said the buyer is a Chinese national who's buying the house for his child, a recent UW graduate.